Don't be distracted by inspiration

Every designer is inspired by something somewhere. Most of us have been known to
say that you can find inspiration in anything. While I do believe in this
mindset, being inspired does not always equate to producing successful design.
As my experience grows I find this to be the case more and more.

I was tasked with making a surfer themed site. Fun, fresh, light and airy. I had
recently seen a cross-section landscape design on
dribbble and wanted to replicate
this in a slightly less realistic manner. I spent a good amount of time going
down this path because I really loved the image that I was inspired by.

In the end I realized two very important things that I should have noticed much
sooner. I was so transfixed with this seemingly great inspiration that I was
unable to come to this realization quickly.

The first thing I noticed: I was not going to be able to recreate a design as
good as the inspiration. This is very often the case since it’s very easy to
be inspired by amazing work. In fact, I’m rarely inspired by work that I can
recreate at an equal quality or better. While it’s great to strive for better
results and to continually improve your skills, we need to be careful of getting
blinded by this goal.

The second thing I noticed: The style I was experimenting with was not going
to be appropriate or successful for the site we were designing. Sure it looked
cool and was a fun illustration to work on but in the end something much more
basic would have been a smarter and better route. As your work is evolving, if
you can’t realize its success or failure potential you need to take a step back
and really think about what you’re doing.

In the end we completely changed the design and Kevin came up with a very
relaxed, simple look that was very well accepted and we think is going to serve
the client nicely. If I had been more strict about realizing the design’s
potential it would have saved us a day or two in design time. That time wasn’t
exactly wasted because it did help us realize the correct path to take, but it
could have been done much sooner with a clearer outlook.

The next time I’m heavily inspired by a certain piece and I really want to try
doing something similar I plan on taking a long, hard look at the practicality
of the idea. I’m going to try and envision the best possible result I could
create stemming from the inspiration. Will this best possible result add value
to the design? Will it fill the project needs? I think evaluating an idea before
trying to execute it is key. Once I’ve started the actual design it consumes me
and I just want to keep at it until it works (regardless of whether it has
potential to actually succeed or not).

All in all, it’s just important to keep a clear head and not get swept away by
grandiose dreams of designing the next amazing thing. Be inspired but make sure
the inspiration is pertinent or can transform into useful output.

Here’s some awesome inspiration
to close out with. It’s by far the funnest thing I’ve seen and participated in
on dribbble. Find something that inspires you but remember not to get consumed
by it.